New ‘INFORM’ report ranks risk for disaster, humanitarian crisis

The Central African Republic, Somalia and South Sudan are atop the list in the 2019 Index for Risk Management (INFORM), a tool for evaluating the potential for humanitarian crises and disasters to help governments and NGOS better respond.

The assessment covers 191 countries and is used by agencies including the World Food Program and the European Commission. It calculates a Global Risk Index (GRI) score on the basis of vulnerability and exposure to hazards, what kind of hazards they are, the capacity for response and other findings.

Somalia has an overall score of 9.1, while South Sudan’s score is 8.9 and the C.A.R. is 8.5. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Sudan all have troubling high scores as well.

Somalia’s top global rank and vulnerability score is based on high exposure to droughts and floods but also man-made crises such as conflict, and the human and culturally driven causes like gender inequality. Those risks are compounded by the country’s lack of resources and coping capacities.

Other African countries considered to be in the same complex situation include Chad, which is seeing positive trends in improvement, and Niger.

Ethiopia, despite its encouraging reforms, still is subject to earthquakes as well as floods and crippling drought in a setting where new-found security is fragile, and ethnic and communal tensions continue.

The DR Congo benefits from resource wealth, but that contributes to the country’s high conflict ranking. Other risks for which it is highly ranked include malnutrition, the malaria death rate, and gender inequities.

While the Central African Republic has less exposure to cyclones, earthquakes and drought, there is a flood risk. Yet C.A.R. is highly vulnerable to human conflict, and the INFORM assessment comes as the United Nations warns of ever-growing humanitarian need there.